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My 2 Best Purchases of 2018

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It is the shopping season, so I thought I would share my two favorite purchases of 2018 with you.

#1 ASUS ZenScreen

This summer I was getting frustrated with the 13-inch screen size of my laptop as it was preventing me from being as productive as I could on my projects, so even though my laptop was only a year old, I started researching buying a new 15-inch laptop.

Thankfully, I stumbled onto a much better and affordable solution. The ASUS ZenScreen is a 2nd monitor for laptops. It is thin and has a nice cover that doubles as a stand when folded. For around $200, I solved all my problems and now I have more screen real estate than I would have with a single 15-inch laptop.

asus zenscreen

My 15.6-inch ASUS ZenScreen to the left. (Amazon USA) The laptop to the right the ASUS Zenbook, which I do not recommend (slow). 

A 2nd monitor is also great if you take online courses such as Lynda or Udemy. It allows me to code in an editor while watching the lesson without pausing the video and switching windows into focus.

Side note: Many libraries provide FREE access to Lynda courses. But library websites are notoriously bad, so Google/Bing the name of your library system and the word Lynda.

#2 Membership to Gym With a Sauna

For years, I have been playing the free-pass game to get access to saunas. I finally decided to get a membership at a nearby LA Fitness, which has a sauna. I’m going 5-6 times a week and I’m loving it. It is making the cold rainy season bearable.

And the health benefits are amazing. Check out the podcast below if you want to hear more about how good saunas can be for you.

The Top 22 Science-Backed Benefits of Saunas (And How Saunas Help You Beat Fatigue and Increase Your Energy)

Do you have a recent purchase that you think I or the reader of this blog would like? Leave a comment. Thanks.

3 Ways to Save Money at Jiffy Lube

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I get my oil changed at Jiffy Lube. I probably could learn how to do it myself, but I’d rather pay them to do it. It is what they do best.

Today, I spent a good amount of time in the lobby and got a few ideas on how the people waiting with me could have saved money.

#1 Online Coupon

Pull out your smartphone and go to Jiffy Lube’s website. Find the coupon. That is an easy $5 or more off your ticket.

#2 Watch 1 YouTube Video Before You Go

If you don’t know how to change your cabin air filter, head over to YouTube and find a video demonstrating how to do it for your car model. In many cars, this is one of the easiest things you can do yourself. Filters on Amazon are around $10. Jiffy Lube will take care of it for about $30.

I’ve replaced my own cabin air filter twice now.

#3 Get Your Oil Changed Less Often

For years, I fell for every 5,000-mile rule. Turns out that is way too much. For my car, my research told me every 10,000 miles was perfect. Do your own research. Your car will have its own ideal recommendations, which are likely longer than 5,000 miles.

In the Lobby

I always share tip #1 with the people in the lobby. I recall one time there was a $20 coupon online. That fellow customer was happy to get the savings. So if you find yourself in the Jiffy Lube lobby, let others know about the coupon.

lose money?

Blog Issues, New Search, and Requests

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This is a quick housekeeping post.

Blog Issues

First, I want to apologize to any of the users that received a CAPTCHA block trying to access this site over the past month. I was unaware it was happening until two users contacted me about the issue. My web host and CDN each were blaming each other. In the end, I HOPE it is finally resolved.

You should never see a CAPTCHA or security block on this site. If you do, please email me ([email protected]) or tag me on Twitter @CriticalMAS with a screenshot and your IP Address (go to whatsmyip.org).

CAPTCHA #1 is what some users saw. It was coming from my website. 

CAPTCHA #2 is by my CDN. I don’t believe anyone received this one. 

The bizarre thing is I’m hosting 4 websites on the same server with the same set up using the same CDN and it only affected this site.

New Search

Try out the new search for this blog, which is located in the right column. I now have auto-complete! It is by Algolia and I get 100,000 free searches per month, which should be more than plenty for this site. So far it seems to be quick and works fine on mobile.

My only issue is that it doesn’t search comments, which is something the WordPress search didn’t do either.

Let me know if you like it or have any issues.

Requests

As the year winds down, I was wondering if there were any post topics that you want to see here on the blog? Thank you!

3 Things I Dislike About My 2017 ASUS Zenbook

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Two months ago I bought a 13.3-inch ASUS ZenBook laptop. For the most part, I am very pleased with the performance of the laptop, but there a few things I dislike.

We got off to a rocky start when I had issues with the display that was too dark to read. ASUS support was useless and clueless to help me.  Fortunately, I was able to fix the display issues. I posted how I did it on Medium.

My new ASUS Zenbook was too dark. How I fixed it.

I was able to fix the brightness issue, but I have 3 more things that I dislike that I want others considering a Zenbook to be aware of.

#1 The Fingerprint Reader

The Zenbook has a fingerprint reader to unlock the laptop. It works about 40% of the time. The other 60% of the time, I press a few times – each time failing – before having to enter a PIN. Meanwhile, the fingerprint reader on my iPhone 6s works 99% of the time on the first try.

#2 The Keyboard

The thing I dislike most about the Zenbook is the keyboard. The keys need to really be pressed to register. The keyboard on my cheap Chromebook is so much better. I have to retype so many sentences on the Zenbook because letters are missing. The biggest issue is when a word has two letters that are the same beside each other. It will often only capture one of the clicks, so Good becomes God.

#3 Adjusting the Volume

This has to be the dumbest keyboard thing I have seen in many years. In order to raise or lower the volume, you need to hit 2 keys at the same time. And the keys are far apart, so it requires both hands.

  • FUNCTION + F11 (lowers the volume)
  • FUNCTION + F12 (raises the volume)

dumb ASUS keyboard

My Next Move

Perhaps I need to buy a USB Keyboard with actual up and down volume buttons and attach it to my Zenbook? That would solve two of my problems. I could use the keyboard at home and use the ASUS keyboard when out.

ASUS Zenbook laptop

ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH54 13.3-inch LCD Ultra-Slim Laptop (Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Amazon CANADA) 

UPDATE: I went to Best Buy and chatted with a sales rep. He showed me that all Windows laptops require hitting the Function key and another key to adjust the volume. Asus happens to spread it out further than other laptops. One of the makers (maybe HP or Dell?) uses the F2, which means one could much easier adjust the volume with a single hand.

Anywho…I bought a USB laptop and am typing away happily on it right now.

More Duolingo Data – My 2 Year Fluency Estimate Chart

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Back in January, I posted Duolingo Fluency Estimates – My Data, in which I shared my fluency estimates charted over time to help other users better understand what a fluency path might look like if they show a similar level of commitment to the program.

Below is an updated view of that data. In mid-April this year, my fluency spiked 12%. Many users on Instagram reported a similar bump at that time.

Duolingo Spanish FLuency

The first data point I have is a 6% Spanish fluency on September 25, 2015. I began using the program on May 5, 2015. I’m currently on a 650 Day streak and I’m at Level 23 with 22,890 XP. A few observations:

  • Sometime after achieving a new level of fluency, you will go up 1% more within a few days.
  • Almost always after hitting a higher level of fluency, Duolingo will drop you back down 1-3% and then you can spend weeks or more getting back to where you were. And I’m telling you this as someone that is consistently using the program and uses other tools to augment my education.

Duolingo is no longer the great program it once was. Now the app is cluttered with ads and is obsessed with giving out worthless gem currency that you can spend in a store with only a few items. Memrise is a superior app for learning Spanish. But Duolingo is free and I’m still getting some benefit, so I’ll continue using it for now.

If you are learning a foreign language and would like to learn with a native speaker, check out iTalki. I’ve been using them for a year and it is a great service. Use my link and we both will get $10 credit after you schedule your first lesson.

UPDATE (October 12, 2017): I created a web page to track my Duolingo progress:

https://michaelallensmith.com/duolingo/

 

Can April Fools Day Be Saved?

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I wrote this post last April Fools Day, but never published. I wanted to share this idea far away from April 1st. 

I recall back in the pre-Internet Days, April Fools Day was more fun. Some teacher or co-worker would come up with something clever and we’d all enjoy the joke. Now we all globally connected every waking minute. This means usually within 30 minutes of waking up on the West Coast on April 1st, I’ve probably already read about some April Fools Day prank from a few time zones to my East.

Also, year in and year old we are bombarded with more stories of April Fools Day pranks. Our guards are up. Corporations use the day for marketing. If something does happen to fool us, which is rare, it is fact checked instantly so one is only fooled for seconds.

If I were King of the World, I’d change it so April Fools Day was less frequent. Maybe only on years that were divisible by 3 or 5. But that isn’t going to happen.

I have an alternate idea.

Truth Bombs Then Silence

What if a large number of people held off on some really big news until April 1st? Post something really interesting that is true on the morning of April 1. Let people assume it is an April Fools joke. Don’t respond until April 2nd, when you confirm the information was truthful.

Use April 1 to announce your engagement, coming out of the closet, moving, quitting your job, your arrest or you’ve decided to go vegan. Why not? If enough people start doing this, it could make April Fools Day fun again or twice as bad. 🙂